src/share/man/man8/daily.8

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.\" Copyright (c) 2003 Jason McIntyre <jmc@openbsd.org>
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.Dd $Mdocdate: July 4 2024 $
.Dt DAILY 8
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm daily , weekly , monthly
.Nd periodic system maintenance
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The three files
.Pa /etc/daily ,
.Pa /etc/weekly ,
and
.Pa /etc/monthly
are shell scripts run on a periodic basis by the clock daemon,
.Xr cron 8 .
They take care of some basic administrative tasks.
Their output, if any, is mailed to root.
.Pp
.Sy Note :
The scripts are all run as part of root's
.Xr crontab 5 .
However, it is strongly suggested that the root mail account
be an alias that forwards messages to a real user or set of users.
Otherwise, root's mail will simply accumulate in
.Pa /var/mail
until the partition holding it runs out of space.
See
.Xr newaliases 8
for further details.
.Pp
These scripts should not be altered.
Local additions should be made to the files
.Pa /etc/daily.local ,
.Pa /etc/weekly.local ,
and
.Pa /etc/monthly.local ,
which will be executed by
.Pa /etc/daily ,
.Pa /etc/weekly ,
and
.Pa /etc/monthly ,
respectively.
The
.Pa *.local
files are executed first, which makes it convenient to do any necessary
cleanup and backup and to define any required shell variables before the
script is run.
.Ss /etc/daily
This script is run daily.
It currently does the following:
.Bl -dash
.It
Runs the script
.Pa /etc/daily.local ,
if it exists.
.It
Removes scratch and junk files from
.Pa /tmp .
.It
Purges accounting records from
.Pa /var/account ,
if they exist.
Processes that were killed due to pledge or memory access violations,
or had file access prevented by unveil,
are reported in the daily mail.
See
.Xr accton 8 ,
.Xr lastcomm 1 ,
and
.Xr sa 8 .
.It
Creates a backup root file system which is updated daily.
This only happens if the following conditions are met:
.Bl -enum -offset indent
.It
The environment variable
.Ev ROOTBACKUP
must be set.
For example, the following can be added to
.Pa /etc/daily.local :
.Pp
.Dl ROOTBACKUP=1
.It
The mount directory
.Pa /altroot
must exist, and there must be an
.Pa /etc/fstab
entry specifying a configured disk device, the file system type
.Sq ffs ,
and
.Sq xx
for the mount options, e.g.
.Pp
.Dl /dev/wd0j /altroot ffs xx 0 0
.El
.It
Checks daemon status.
Lists any daemons which are enabled in
.Xr rc.conf.local 8
but which are not actually running.
.It
Reports on which file systems need to be dumped via
.Xr dump 8 .
.It
Runs the
.Xr calendar 1
utility unless the environment variable
.Ev CALENDAR
is set to 0 in
.Pa /etc/daily.local
or the host is a
.Xr yp 8
client.
.It
If
.Ev CHECKFILESYSTEMS
is set to 1 in
.Pa /etc/daily.local ,
runs
.Xr fsck 8
with the no-write flag
.Pq Fl n .
.It
If the file
.Pa /etc/Distfile
exists, runs the
.Xr rdist 1
utility.
.It
Runs the system
.Xr security 8
check script.
.El
.Ss /etc/weekly
This script is run weekly.
It currently does the following:
.Bl -dash
.It
Runs the script
.Pa /etc/weekly.local ,
if it exists.
.It
Rebuilds the
.Xr locate 1
database, if there is an existing
.Pa /var/db/locate.database
file.
.It
Rebuilds the
.Xr whatis 1
database(s) via
.Xr makewhatis 8 .
.It
If
.Ev LOGINACCOUNTING
is set to 1 in
.Pa /etc/weekly.local
and the
.Pa /var/log/wtmp
file exists, show individual users' login via the
.Xr ac 8
utility.
.El
.Ss /etc/monthly
This script is run monthly.
It currently does the following:
.Bl -dash
.It
Runs the script
.Pa /etc/monthly.local ,
if it exists.
.El
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
The following variables can be set in
.Pa /etc/daily.local :
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "CHECKFILESYSTEMS" -compact
.It Ev CALENDAR
If set to 0, do not run
.Xr calendar 1 .
.It Ev CHECKFILESYSTEMS
If set to 1, run
.Xr fsck 8
with the no-write flag.
.It Ev ROOTBACKUP
If set to 1, make a backup of the root file system.
.El
.Pp
The following variables can be set in
.Pa /etc/weekly.local :
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "CHECKFILESYSTEMS" -compact
.It Ev LOGINACCOUNTING
If set to 1, run
.Xr ac 8
to report login accounting.
.It Ev MAKEWHATISARGS
Arguments for
.Xr makewhatis 8 ;
empty by default.
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width "/var/cron/tabs/root" -compact
.It Pa /etc/daily
Daily maintenance script.
.It Pa /etc/daily.local
Site specific daily maintenance script.
.It Pa /etc/weekly
Weekly maintenance script.
.It Pa /etc/weekly.local
Site specific weekly maintenance script.
.It Pa /etc/monthly
Monthly maintenance script.
.It Pa /etc/monthly.local
Site specific monthly maintenance script.
.It Pa /var/cron/tabs/root
Root
.Xr crontab 5 .
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr calendar 1 ,
.Xr crontab 1 ,
.Xr locate 1 ,
.Xr rdist 1 ,
.Xr whatis 1 ,
.Xr crontab 5 ,
.Xr ac 8 ,
.Xr accton 8 ,
.Xr cron 8 ,
.Xr dump 8 ,
.Xr fsck 8 ,
.Xr makewhatis 8 ,
.Xr sa 8 ,
.Xr security 8 ,
.Xr yp 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm daily , weekly ,
and
.Nm monthly
scripts first appeared in
.Bx 4.3 Reno .
This manual page first appeared in
.Ox 3.4 .
.Sh CAVEATS
If the host machine is not running 24/7, these scripts may never be run.
Adjusting the time fields in the system
.Xr crontab 5
may partially alleviate this problem.
.Pp
Be careful when adding local additions.
Services such as
.Qq www
have their own users, and should be run as such, not as root.
It may be more appropriate to create a separate
.Xr crontab 5
for such services.